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Let Me Eat Cake: A Celebration of Flour, Sugar, Butter, Eggs, Vanilla, Baking Powder, and a Pinch of Salt
Few creations are more associated with joy or more symbolic of the sweet life than cake. After all, it is so much more than dessert.
As a book about cake would demand, this one is a multilayered, amply frosted, delicious concoction with a slice (or more) for everyone. Let Me Eat Cake is not a book about baking cake, but about eating it.
Author Leslie F. Miller embarks on a journey (not a journey cake, although it's in there) into the moist white underbelly of the cake world. She visits factories and local bakeries and wedding cake boutiques. She interviews famous chefs like Duff Goldman of Food Network's Ace of Cakes and less famous ones like Roland Winbeckler, who sculpts life-size human figures out of hundreds of pounds of pound cake and buttercream frosting. She takes decorating classes, shares recipes, and samples the best cakes and the worst.
The book is held together by the hero on a quest, one that traces cake history and tradition. If we were to bake a cake to celebrate the birth of cake (cake is an Old Norse word, first used around 1230), it is hard to say how many candles would go on top. Though the meaning of the word (originally "lump of something"), not to mention our expectations of its ingredients, has changed over time, we now celebrate cake as the coming together of flour, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, baking powder, and a pinch of salt.
And what a celebration. Baking a cake is hard work, but tasting it is pure pleasure. So put on some elastic-waist pants and grab a fork.
As a book about cake would demand, this one is a multilayered, amply frosted, delicious concoction with a slice (or more) for everyone. Let Me Eat Cake is not a book about baking cake, but about eating it.
Author Leslie F. Miller embarks on a journey (not a journey cake, although it's in there) into the moist white underbelly of the cake world. She visits factories and local bakeries and wedding cake boutiques. She interviews famous chefs like Duff Goldman of Food Network's Ace of Cakes and less famous ones like Roland Winbeckler, who sculpts life-size human figures out of hundreds of pounds of pound cake and buttercream frosting. She takes decorating classes, shares recipes, and samples the best cakes and the worst.
The book is held together by the hero on a quest, one that traces cake history and tradition. If we were to bake a cake to celebrate the birth of cake (cake is an Old Norse word, first used around 1230), it is hard to say how many candles would go on top. Though the meaning of the word (originally "lump of something"), not to mention our expectations of its ingredients, has changed over time, we now celebrate cake as the coming together of flour, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, baking powder, and a pinch of salt.
And what a celebration. Baking a cake is hard work, but tasting it is pure pleasure. So put on some elastic-waist pants and grab a fork.
352 pages, Paperback
First published March 27, 2009
About the author
Leslie F. Miller
4 books9 followersI like cake and beer, often together. And I am a chronic chronicler, which means I document nearly everything I do, whether it's baking a cake or learning to play the guitar or watching my daughter rock out.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
May 6, 2009
I wanted to like this book more than I actually did. The concept was certainly compelling (a book celebrating cakes rather than simply being about making them) and it was edited by Betsy Lerner.
I think what put me off was how the author kept switching back and forth between personal memories (occasionally not cake related, she writes at length about her mother and grandmother's cooking), cake history, contests, cake shop visits and other cake related topics with little in the way of transitions. This gave a sort of scattered feel to the book. While these events were divided into different sections and chapters, she referred back to events that occurred in earlier chapters/sections fairly frequently so even though the topic changed, the chapters (she cutely calls them layers) really couldn't stand alone as individual essays. She also skipped around a bit chronologically, thoughts on her visit to Charm City Cakes are divided into at least 3 different chapters, which was odd and seemed out of order.
Some chapters (especially the more historically-focused) despite the obvious research that went into them seemed sort of thrown in at the last minute; they were very short and without much of the commentary the rest of the book was thick with. It was almost as if the book was both too large in scope-it is a celebration of cake, rather than a straight up memoir- and too small-she rarely ventures beyond the confines of the Baltimore area. Even the Today show competition she writes about is made up solely of local bakers. While Baltimore is home to several bakeries, it isn't as if Baltimore is some sort of cake capital in the country. When she does discuss cakes from other regions, one is not left with the impression that she actually traveled to these areas or tried most of those cakes.
Despite it being a book about eating cakes rather than making them, she does do a fair amount of cake baking in the book. I didn't get the impression she knew too much about baking before starting her book research and makes a few mistakes (repeatedly referring to vegetable shortening as lard springs to mind) which is fine, she doesn't claim to be an experienced baker, but these chapters take the book into more memoir territory which I felt was at odds with chapters about Marie Antoinette and the history of the cakewalk which were written with little personal interjection. The whole book sort of vacillated between being a personal story about a woman's relationship with cake and book that was more about cake in general and I ended up wishing that she had picked one form or the other. One's life can inform a more straightforward book about a topic and indeed that's what makes more readable nonfiction books stand out but she veered a little too close to the personal on too many occasions for a book that wasn't supposed to be a memoir for my taste.
I would have rather had a straight up memoir about her and her rather obsessive love of cake like Hilary Liftin's Candy and Me or more of a cohesive cake journey similar to Steve Almond's Candy Freak. All in all it wasn't bad exactly, I was just left feeling like something was missing.
I think what put me off was how the author kept switching back and forth between personal memories (occasionally not cake related, she writes at length about her mother and grandmother's cooking), cake history, contests, cake shop visits and other cake related topics with little in the way of transitions. This gave a sort of scattered feel to the book. While these events were divided into different sections and chapters, she referred back to events that occurred in earlier chapters/sections fairly frequently so even though the topic changed, the chapters (she cutely calls them layers) really couldn't stand alone as individual essays. She also skipped around a bit chronologically, thoughts on her visit to Charm City Cakes are divided into at least 3 different chapters, which was odd and seemed out of order.
Some chapters (especially the more historically-focused) despite the obvious research that went into them seemed sort of thrown in at the last minute; they were very short and without much of the commentary the rest of the book was thick with. It was almost as if the book was both too large in scope-it is a celebration of cake, rather than a straight up memoir- and too small-she rarely ventures beyond the confines of the Baltimore area. Even the Today show competition she writes about is made up solely of local bakers. While Baltimore is home to several bakeries, it isn't as if Baltimore is some sort of cake capital in the country. When she does discuss cakes from other regions, one is not left with the impression that she actually traveled to these areas or tried most of those cakes.
Despite it being a book about eating cakes rather than making them, she does do a fair amount of cake baking in the book. I didn't get the impression she knew too much about baking before starting her book research and makes a few mistakes (repeatedly referring to vegetable shortening as lard springs to mind) which is fine, she doesn't claim to be an experienced baker, but these chapters take the book into more memoir territory which I felt was at odds with chapters about Marie Antoinette and the history of the cakewalk which were written with little personal interjection. The whole book sort of vacillated between being a personal story about a woman's relationship with cake and book that was more about cake in general and I ended up wishing that she had picked one form or the other. One's life can inform a more straightforward book about a topic and indeed that's what makes more readable nonfiction books stand out but she veered a little too close to the personal on too many occasions for a book that wasn't supposed to be a memoir for my taste.
I would have rather had a straight up memoir about her and her rather obsessive love of cake like Hilary Liftin's Candy and Me or more of a cohesive cake journey similar to Steve Almond's Candy Freak. All in all it wasn't bad exactly, I was just left feeling like something was missing.
March 31, 2009
I'm not sure whether to give this 3 or 4 stars - I'm going with 4 since she gave me real hope that someday I can successfully make frosting, and she could be quite a funny writer at times.
Its an interesting topic, but she lacks focus. For all her talk in the beginning about how her book is arranged in layers (like a cake, get it?) the different subjects she tackles - history of cake, her family history and her personal history, both cake related and otherwise, celebrity cake makers, etc, are all mixed up like, well, like a marble cake, with no clear separations.
She talks about everything - Marie Antoinette, Martha Stewart, Victorians, colonials, Vikings, Romans, Mid-Atlantic pastry shops, snack cake history, recipes, her grandmother's kitchen, the evil wedding industry, first birthday cakes, and a lot of other things that flitted through her mind while she wrote this book on the sugar high that resulted from all the cake she taste tested while doing "research" for this book.
She talks a lot about her family experience of growing up with her grandmother's cooking, and speculates everyone's trying to find a store that sells cakes "like your grandmother's."
I find that hilarious since none of my grandmothers or step grandmothers could bake a decent cake if their lives depended on it. Still, I get the idea of trying to recreate childhood memories of the taste of that perfect birthday cake. I remember this one cake my dad made way back when the world was young that was pure Nirvana in cake form.
Its an interesting topic, but she lacks focus. For all her talk in the beginning about how her book is arranged in layers (like a cake, get it?) the different subjects she tackles - history of cake, her family history and her personal history, both cake related and otherwise, celebrity cake makers, etc, are all mixed up like, well, like a marble cake, with no clear separations.
She talks about everything - Marie Antoinette, Martha Stewart, Victorians, colonials, Vikings, Romans, Mid-Atlantic pastry shops, snack cake history, recipes, her grandmother's kitchen, the evil wedding industry, first birthday cakes, and a lot of other things that flitted through her mind while she wrote this book on the sugar high that resulted from all the cake she taste tested while doing "research" for this book.
She talks a lot about her family experience of growing up with her grandmother's cooking, and speculates everyone's trying to find a store that sells cakes "like your grandmother's."
I find that hilarious since none of my grandmothers or step grandmothers could bake a decent cake if their lives depended on it. Still, I get the idea of trying to recreate childhood memories of the taste of that perfect birthday cake. I remember this one cake my dad made way back when the world was young that was pure Nirvana in cake form.
May 17, 2009
Bought this at the Red Canoe in the Lauraville section of Baltimore where the author is from. I was at the Red Canoe the day of her book signing although I left before she arrived.
I really couldn't find any clear point to this book. It just seemed to ramble on and on and on. If you are familiar with Baltimore, you can follow many of the references in the book. But if you are not a Baltimore area person, you will lose quite a bit.
The premise of the book is a good one. But some where along the way, she got lost. A book about the history of cake is a great idea but Ms. Miller failed to do that. The personal memories about her mother and grand mother seemed to detract from the book.
I could not in all honesty recommend this book to a friend.
I really couldn't find any clear point to this book. It just seemed to ramble on and on and on. If you are familiar with Baltimore, you can follow many of the references in the book. But if you are not a Baltimore area person, you will lose quite a bit.
The premise of the book is a good one. But some where along the way, she got lost. A book about the history of cake is a great idea but Ms. Miller failed to do that. The personal memories about her mother and grand mother seemed to detract from the book.
I could not in all honesty recommend this book to a friend.
May 16, 2009
Leslie F. Miller is a very bad writer. Really, that's all I got.
June 12, 2009
I'm not much of a cake person. Oh, I'll eat it when someone else makes one (in fact, as I type this, I'm eating a piece from a cake my daughter made last night), but generally speaking, I can do without. Nonetheless, this was an enjoyable read. While this isn't a cookbook or how-to guide of any kind, there are a few context-related recipes as well as a few tips based on Ms. Miller's story of the moment.
This is as much a memoir as anything else, with the most enjoyable parts for me being her detailed accounts of experiences with her family, most notably her grandmother. Let Me Eat Cake is a charming (Baltimore *is* Charm City, after all), witty, sometimes informative and often poignant look at a life in and around the kitchen. Cake is ostensibly the star of the book, but to me is really only the vehicle for Miller's stories.
This is as much a memoir as anything else, with the most enjoyable parts for me being her detailed accounts of experiences with her family, most notably her grandmother. Let Me Eat Cake is a charming (Baltimore *is* Charm City, after all), witty, sometimes informative and often poignant look at a life in and around the kitchen. Cake is ostensibly the star of the book, but to me is really only the vehicle for Miller's stories.
June 3, 2026
Anyone who knows me knows that I have an addiction to sweets; chocolate is my favorite food group. In theory, this is the perfect book for someone like me... in reality, however, it took a lot of slogging to get through it. Not that it wasn't informational, but Miller's writing style is neither funny nor entertaining, which she tries desperately to be. My favorite parts of the book are when she talks about her beloved grandmother, but droning on and on about cake decorator tip sizes for pages on end, it gets a bit tedious. Other reviewers say she is obsessed with Duff Goldman; I would have to agree. Almost to an unhealthy extent, if I'm being brutally honest. Yet at the same time, he doesn't come across well in this book, so I'm not exactly sure what she was trying to accomplish. All in all, I did learn a lot from reading this book, but it was far too long for the subject at hand. At one point, the author tries to make a joke about pedophiles, but it comes off as tone deaf and with total lack of awareness, in my point of view.
Some of my favorite passages from the book:
"But the women were the matriarchs; they ruled our castles with iron skillets and frayed oven mitts."
"When you mix flour and water, you get glue. When you add eggs and sugar, you get cake. Where did the glue go? It's what makes the cake stick to your butt."
"This is home, at least mine, when the matriarchs would thrust the food upon you, become bitter if you reject it, then look at you askance if you put on weight."
Some of my favorite passages from the book:
"But the women were the matriarchs; they ruled our castles with iron skillets and frayed oven mitts."
"When you mix flour and water, you get glue. When you add eggs and sugar, you get cake. Where did the glue go? It's what makes the cake stick to your butt."
"This is home, at least mine, when the matriarchs would thrust the food upon you, become bitter if you reject it, then look at you askance if you put on weight."
September 24, 2009
I was expecting more of this book, a more Julie Powell feel. I love books like that, books that contain fun facts, good, practical knowledge, and little personal tidbits. Those kind of books are sweet and charming. That's what this book was supposed to be.
I'm a self proclaimed connoisseur of desserts. I look to the dessert menu when i go out to eat to determine what entree i can order. I watch Martha Stewart bake avidly. i hoard recipes for lemon bars, chocolate matcha bundt cake, pumpkin whoopie pies. I am disappointed when my mom makes the Food section of the L.A. Times disappear, and more disappointed if they don't have a recipe for something sweet.
Now having said that, I am not a big fan of cake. I prefer pies and custards, soft cookies. Once in a while, I crave a cupcake. That's it. This book did not at all foster any more affection for cake in me. In fact, it did quite the opposite. While there were some interesting facts about the beginning of cake, most of it was about Leslie Miller's "addiction" to cake. Chapters and chapters are interrupted by her moaning about the size of her ass and how she cannot resist cake. It's really annoying. Instead of being charming, she just comes off as creepy.
The book lacks a purpose. Leslie Miller interviews huge celebrities in the world of cake like Duff Goldman, the originator of Charm City Cakes, the innovator with his own show Ace of Cakes. And yet, it's not really clear what's going on in the interview, why she's interviewing him at all. It all seems to come back to the fact that she just wanted to eat some cake and watch some cake being decorated.
I was hugely disappointed. It might be because I dislike reading about people with no willpower or it might have been the sense of "this is pointless" I got, but basically, I did not like this book very much at all.
I'm a self proclaimed connoisseur of desserts. I look to the dessert menu when i go out to eat to determine what entree i can order. I watch Martha Stewart bake avidly. i hoard recipes for lemon bars, chocolate matcha bundt cake, pumpkin whoopie pies. I am disappointed when my mom makes the Food section of the L.A. Times disappear, and more disappointed if they don't have a recipe for something sweet.
Now having said that, I am not a big fan of cake. I prefer pies and custards, soft cookies. Once in a while, I crave a cupcake. That's it. This book did not at all foster any more affection for cake in me. In fact, it did quite the opposite. While there were some interesting facts about the beginning of cake, most of it was about Leslie Miller's "addiction" to cake. Chapters and chapters are interrupted by her moaning about the size of her ass and how she cannot resist cake. It's really annoying. Instead of being charming, she just comes off as creepy.
The book lacks a purpose. Leslie Miller interviews huge celebrities in the world of cake like Duff Goldman, the originator of Charm City Cakes, the innovator with his own show Ace of Cakes. And yet, it's not really clear what's going on in the interview, why she's interviewing him at all. It all seems to come back to the fact that she just wanted to eat some cake and watch some cake being decorated.
I was hugely disappointed. It might be because I dislike reading about people with no willpower or it might have been the sense of "this is pointless" I got, but basically, I did not like this book very much at all.
May 28, 2011
to borrow a phrase from cooking competitions, the concept is brilliant but this book fails in execution. this book is presented as a celebration of cake, but the book reads as a celebration of the author and her obsession with cake within the baltimore area. the problem is that she comes across as a bit of a know-it-all and doesn't really allow the reader to make their own judgments. in some instances she seems oblivious to her own faults - she mentions interrupting a conversation between a famous cake artist and a fan in order to correct the cake artist about something, then seems surprised when the cake artist is brusque with her and then calls her out on it during their interview. there's a cake artist featured that she appears to have a vendetta against, because every reference to this baker has a bit of a dig included. if she doesn't like what someone is telling her, she acknowledges the fact that she's bored of this and doesn't go into detail, even if it's something someone might be interested to hear about. it's looking at cake through her eyes, and i would prefer this book to be more objective.
the book also suffers from an organization problem. there are sections where the author goes into topics that are unrelated to cake and often to toot her own horn, like her grandmother's cooking and her mosaics which have been featured on TV. some chapters are barely a page, others go on for a while. instead of talking about a cake artist for one chapter, she skips around, inserting the information where it suits her. it's barely a few notches above stream of consciousness.
i like the idea of a book about cake. but i wanted less of the author and more about cake. i came out of this book feeling like i didn't really learn anything new about cake. fortunately, it's a quick read, because i probably wouldn't have finished it if it wasn't.
the book also suffers from an organization problem. there are sections where the author goes into topics that are unrelated to cake and often to toot her own horn, like her grandmother's cooking and her mosaics which have been featured on TV. some chapters are barely a page, others go on for a while. instead of talking about a cake artist for one chapter, she skips around, inserting the information where it suits her. it's barely a few notches above stream of consciousness.
i like the idea of a book about cake. but i wanted less of the author and more about cake. i came out of this book feeling like i didn't really learn anything new about cake. fortunately, it's a quick read, because i probably wouldn't have finished it if it wasn't.
May 19, 2009
Leslie F. Miller had me at the book title.
Reading it, however, was sometimes a struggle. I expected, as the title said, a celebration of cake. Instead, the book is part-memoir, part-history lesson, part inside-peek at the Baltimore cake scene.
I have to admit I disliked the "insider" glimpse the author gave into Baltimore bakeries. I simply didn't care, and the analysis of the contest for Good Morning America was disjointed and tedious. In fact, "disjointed" is a word that came to mind frequently while reading this book.
I found myself wishing Miller knew more about cake. Much as I enjoyed her honest depiction of devouring mass quantities of Safeway cake, it was hard for me to get on board with someone who prefers grocery store cake.
Her section on well-known cakes from various regions of the nation fell flat. It was obvious (especially for the couple of cakes I knew anything about) that Miller didn't know these cakes and had most likely read about them somewhere. She certainly had never tried to make them and most likely never tasted them.
But it would be premature to write off the book for these reasons alone. Because, whatver failings Miller had in presenting her thoughts, she has a distinct voice, is inherently likable, and writes with passion and humor on the subject of cake, glorious cake.
I liked how she wove in her life's story throughout the book. Her story is one to which cake lovers can relate, and I loved the honesty of her often-embarrassing cake experiences. I felt like I was reading an account of a friend. Miller really is that likable.
It was a fun read, and I'd recommend it to anyone who thinks cake is the best dessert ever.
Reading it, however, was sometimes a struggle. I expected, as the title said, a celebration of cake. Instead, the book is part-memoir, part-history lesson, part inside-peek at the Baltimore cake scene.
I have to admit I disliked the "insider" glimpse the author gave into Baltimore bakeries. I simply didn't care, and the analysis of the contest for Good Morning America was disjointed and tedious. In fact, "disjointed" is a word that came to mind frequently while reading this book.
I found myself wishing Miller knew more about cake. Much as I enjoyed her honest depiction of devouring mass quantities of Safeway cake, it was hard for me to get on board with someone who prefers grocery store cake.
Her section on well-known cakes from various regions of the nation fell flat. It was obvious (especially for the couple of cakes I knew anything about) that Miller didn't know these cakes and had most likely read about them somewhere. She certainly had never tried to make them and most likely never tasted them.
But it would be premature to write off the book for these reasons alone. Because, whatver failings Miller had in presenting her thoughts, she has a distinct voice, is inherently likable, and writes with passion and humor on the subject of cake, glorious cake.
I liked how she wove in her life's story throughout the book. Her story is one to which cake lovers can relate, and I loved the honesty of her often-embarrassing cake experiences. I felt like I was reading an account of a friend. Miller really is that likable.
It was a fun read, and I'd recommend it to anyone who thinks cake is the best dessert ever.
August 22, 2011
This book should be renamed "Obsessed with cake, frosting and Duff Goldman". I read a quarter of this book and skimmed through the rest. In that first quarter she talks mostly of fruitcake and its history which is incredibly boring! Her love for carrot cake. Her love for only the 4 corners of a cake. Her love or in other words obsession for Duff Goldman. She continues to repeat all of these things through out this book. She lives in the same city as Duff so I guess I can understand her love for him but she makes more than one chapter dedicated to him. And when his name isnt in the chapter title he is still mentioned throughout this entire book. Its almost as if shes bragging about living so close to him and meeting him and so on. She also talks about how she doesnt like to decorate cake or even bake it. Just simply eat it. Or going to the grocery store to buy a tub of icing and attacking it with a spoon. Sorry but i thought this was supposed to be a book about cake inside and out. Not about some ladys insane addiction of how much she loves cake enough to almost name her daughter "cake". Her history lessons are horrible, she basically copy and pasted facts off a wikipedia page and her attempt at humor is very annoying. Its laughable to think someone has spent the full $25 on this book as it says on the inside cover. My sister thankfully got it for free at Borders . It would be embarassing to say otherwise.
November 30, 2009
I may have built this one up too much when I read the description because I was a little disappointed but definitely appreciate the candidness with which the author revealed the details of her cake obsession. You have to give a woman credit when she is willing to reveal that she has eaten cake huddled in a dark corner over a trash can. I hold this image in my memory and it actually empowers me to resist cake.
I must agree whole-heartedly that cake is special and cake is love. I woke up quite early to bake a cake from scratch (I too made an ugly cake that needed the author's frequently used sign: "ugly but good") and I poured my heart into that cake and though even the slightest taste of residual icing from my fingers resulted in an instant tooth rattling, mind numbing sugar high, it didn't matter. The cake wasn't for me (I didn't even eat a slice). It was a gesture of love to a wonderful sister. Her response to the cake said it all. I think she could feel it. Cake IS love.
I must agree whole-heartedly that cake is special and cake is love. I woke up quite early to bake a cake from scratch (I too made an ugly cake that needed the author's frequently used sign: "ugly but good") and I poured my heart into that cake and though even the slightest taste of residual icing from my fingers resulted in an instant tooth rattling, mind numbing sugar high, it didn't matter. The cake wasn't for me (I didn't even eat a slice). It was a gesture of love to a wonderful sister. Her response to the cake said it all. I think she could feel it. Cake IS love.
January 14, 2010
Overall, interesting, and sometimes even funny (she tries funny a lot, but it doesn't always go that way). My main problem with it is how contradictory she seems to be. She's a self-proclaimed cake addict, but then has this huge tirade against artificial sweeteners and Crisco and such, but then her FAVORITE cake in the WORLD, when it's not the Silver Palette Carrot Cake (which I have issues with just by itself - how can a VEGETABLE cake be the FAVORITE?? Granted, Silver Palette's great, and I have yet to make this cake, but come on), is a SAFEWAY CAKE!! A grocery store cake??!! Really?? Known far and wide as the grossest kind of cake available, with LARD AND SUGAR FROSTING?? (And she goes on for years about the importance of great frosting.) It would be one thing if that was just her favorite cake, but to throw in all the "Ew, artificial blahbiddy-blah, trans-fats blah blah blah", it's just weird and inconsistent.
But again, interesting, and reading about cake is delightful.
But again, interesting, and reading about cake is delightful.
September 30, 2012
This book, like a crappy Jewel-Osco cupcake, is very briefly interesting but by and large a waste of time and calories. From the out-of-place, poorly thought out "eatymology" of the word "cakewalk" to the repeated references to personal weight problems due to cake addiction to the sloppy "histories" of certain cakes to the lists (yes, lists) of songs related to cake, Leslie Miller utterly fails to form a cohesive volume. I should've stopped reading at the section on the author's grandmother's gigantic breasts, but I was far too generous with my time and was convinced that this would *eventually* turn out to be a worthwhile read. The only reason I could ever recommend this to a friend would be because it is an excellent example of a poorly researched, crappily organized, and shittily edited book. As a what-NOT-to-do, it shines.
April 22, 2009
Witty, fun, drool-worthy. If you are indifferent to cake, Miller will make you like it. If you love cake, Miller will make you adore it!
This is the kind of book that is best read in slices. (As much as we might want to, eating an entire cake in one sitting might be a bad idea). I found picking it up and opening to any chapter was the most fun...I never knew what I was going to get. If I wasn't in the mood for a history lesson, I could just skip to a different section. I savored every bit in this way.
My favorite parts are the straight memoir. Leslie knows how to tell a good story, and I found myself wanting more of that. I guess I'll just have to wait for her autobiography!
This is the kind of book that is best read in slices. (As much as we might want to, eating an entire cake in one sitting might be a bad idea). I found picking it up and opening to any chapter was the most fun...I never knew what I was going to get. If I wasn't in the mood for a history lesson, I could just skip to a different section. I savored every bit in this way.
My favorite parts are the straight memoir. Leslie knows how to tell a good story, and I found myself wanting more of that. I guess I'll just have to wait for her autobiography!
October 29, 2009
I really wanted to love (even just like) this book but the author really makes it difficult. Cake should be a subject that's easy to love and easy to read about. However, Leslie Miller continually flip flops from history to interviews with bakers to personal rants and there's often no basis for why she discussing any particular topic at any particular spot in the book. I found a lot of it actually was boring...boring? Did I say that a book about cake was boring? Hard to believe, especially because it is very apparent that the author is completely obsessed with cake. This book was a lot like the cake that looks amazing but tastes like sawdust when you bite into it.
July 13, 2009
This is the worst food book I have ever read! It is badly written and even more poorly edited! It is only a testimony to my extreme interest in the subject that I slogged through it. In keeping with other reviewers, I would agree that the author needed to decide whether to write a memoir or a non-fiction book about cake (but NEITHER ONE does she do well). In generaly, I felt like a hostage to her eating disorder. WHY would ANYONE with this disfunctional of an attitude towards food try to write a book about cake? And WHY do we have to enable her?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 25, 2013
In Let Me Eat Cake, Leslie F. Miller has an entertaining idea: coupling historical and contemporary/pop culture views and even some technical insights into this culinary delight with her personal reflections, reminiscences and engagement verging on obsession with the subject matter. The tone is amiable if a bit self-inflating, even where it intends to be self-deprecating. Unfortunately, the overall approach is uneven and long-winded.
Read my complete review here: http://bookgagabooks.ca/2013/09/24/le...
Read my complete review here: http://bookgagabooks.ca/2013/09/24/le...
February 22, 2009
I happen to have a lot of love for Lesley Miller's subject--cake--but I also love how she writes. She approaches her cake-obsession with curiosity, with intensity, with humor and open-mindness, and she's not above self-deprecation. (the book reminds me a bit of Steve Almond's Candy Freak.) Her prose is clean and clear and highly readable. I thought Let Me Eat Cake was fun and informative and original.
January 13, 2010
Entertaining. We get bits and pieces of cake history, interviews with famous chefs (like Duff Goldman of Ace of Cakes fame), some personal history of the author's with recipes, along with cake jobs, cakes from different regions, and more.
An admitted cake addict, Miller leads us through each layer with wit and style. In honor of this book, I'm baking a carrot cake this weekend. Yum, can't wait.
An admitted cake addict, Miller leads us through each layer with wit and style. In honor of this book, I'm baking a carrot cake this weekend. Yum, can't wait.
October 17, 2010
Let Me Eat Cake is not about cake, it's about the author's obsession with cake. There's a large difference in the two topics. The natural interest in the general topic of cake slowly dies as every subject raised is related back, somehow, some way, to the author, and not necessarily in ways that engage the reader. The only question I had after reading this is whether Duff from Ace of Cakes is still on speaking terms with Ms. Miller.
April 7, 2013
Ugh! Another horrible collection of essays. Tell you what, as blog posts, none of the chapters I read would have been terrible, but I still wouldn't subscribe. One chapter is literally a blow-by-blow description of an episode of Seinfeld. That's it! A description of a TV show, with no commentary. Also, Miller is completely self-absorbed. Just don't even bother.
March 31, 2009
I would have liked this book more if every other paragraph had left out the comment about how cake made you fat, but ha ha ha, everyone knows about how they're fat, and you can just constantly diet but still, you know, have cake? Pbbt
April 29, 2009
I wanted to like this and it started out as an absorbing read. The loooooong drawn out section about a contest on a TV show to choose a wedding cake for a couple really bogged down the book and I never really recovered any interest in it after that part.
October 26, 2009
Didn't love it - thought I would, but I couldn't really respect someone who went for the slices of grocery store cake with the most frosting on them. I can feel that nasty frosting on the roof of my mouth just thinking about it!
Read
January 8, 2010Nothing to keep me glued to the pages but interesting enough. I abandoned it in favor of novels. May come back to it now and again but I don't see myself finishing it cover to cover. Finally abandoned it completely.
August 7, 2010
The writing style is witty with author's personal account with her love affair with cake, but quickly became boring half-way through the book. Too many layers to this cake, plus I had a library fine and needed to return asap, and that wasn't sweet.
January 6, 2011
This book was an okay read. The first few chapters were interesting and funny. Towards the middle/end of the book I wanted to discontinue reading, but I don't like starting a book and then not finishing. So I read through the last 10 or so chapters. This book could have been better.
Did Not Finish
October 13, 2011Couldn't finish this. I was just really bored. I guess I didn't really like the premise of the book. I might have liked it more if she was going to start her own bakery or she was a cake maker. Just wasn't for me.
January 22, 2012
I picked this up from Borders before they closed (RIP), and just haven't gotten around to reading it. I was pleasantly surprised. :) The author is from Maryland and wrote about a lot of bakeries that I have tried, mostly through bridal shows. It was a fun book!
January 28, 2016
The section titled Fifth Tier: Competitions went on for far too long. It got to the point where I stopped caring and had to force myself to finish the book.
Did I like it? It had some good parts.
Would I reread it? Probably not.
Would I recommend it? Not sure.
Did I like it? It had some good parts.
Would I reread it? Probably not.
Would I recommend it? Not sure.
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